Exercise isn't going to help you lose weight necessarily. There's plenty of data to suggest that our bodies adapt to exercise -- and metabolisms slow down as people lose weight. Exercise is still good for you, but again, after some point, the benefits peak -- so for significant weight loss, you need to exercise and change your dietary habits. (duh?) [url]

After you've finished checking out those links, take a look at our Daily Deals for cool gadgets and other awesome stuff.

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]]>urls-we-dig-uphttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20110531/04010214484Sat, 12 Mar 2016 09:00:00 PSTAwesome Stuff: Monitor EverythingLeigh Beadonhttps://www.techdirt.com/blog/innovation/articles/20160312/08094833881/awesome-stuff-monitor-everything.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/blog/innovation/articles/20160312/08094833881/awesome-stuff-monitor-everything.shtml
This week, we've got three new crowdfunded products that let you monitor things in new ways — two that provide data you've likely never had access to before, and a third that takes webcams to the next level.

Fitness and workout metrics are among the prime areas where smart technology can deliver something new and truly useful to lots of people. From FitBit to Nike+, there are a variety of sensors and monitors out there for the fitness enthusiast — but Enflux Smart Clothing wraps all sorts of stuff into one form-fitting full-body package. The Enflux suit has two major sensor modules and 10 motion sensors in total, allowing it to not only track and store a huge amount of workout data, but to actually build a full 3D avatar so you can watch your own workout. This enables you to do things like watch your form and motion with an overlay of the ideal form and motion, or even have the app call out tips and cues during the workout like a human trainer would.

What Enflux does for exercisers, the BRAIN One does for motorcyclists. Just as the best athletes in the world have trainers and technology at their back, so do the world's motorsports champions, because nobody gets to be the best without metrics that help them understand their own failings and improve. BRAIN One is a standalone telemetry device that attaches easily to any motorcycle and starts collecting key performance data with a bunch of sensors, most notably a 9-axis inertia sensor that watches your handling of turns and bends. It communicates with your smartphone, and even integrates with GoPro and other action cameras for additional capabilities, like challenging your friends to asynchronous races and creating videos of your results overlaid with performance data. It also has an open API and is designed to be extendable to other types of vehicles with a little configuration and coding — and it does all this at a fraction of what professional telemetry devices cost.

Just in case you're not a fitness buff or an avid motorcyclist, here's a device for everyone (or at least, everyone with access to Google Cardboard or, better still, a headset like the Oculus Rift). The WebEye VR claims to be the first virtual reality webcam, and while I can't entirely confirm this, it's clearly an early entrant in the field. Its biggest application is obviously video chatting, which could be bumped to a whole new immersive level with VR technology, but I suspect it'll also find use for things from home monitoring to VR content creation. It's got some solid specs: two full-HD cameras delivering a 160-degree field of view in full stereoscopic 3D, at a price that's pretty much on par with a pair of high-end normal HD webcams. There are demo videos and live broadcasts for those who want to see how it performs, and one of the creators has even made himself available for live one-on-one demo calls with potential backers.

First up, the super impressive Scanadu Scout, what they refer to as a "medical tricorder." Honestly, this is the kind of thing that it feels like should have been on the market ages ago. A simple consumer device that you can use to quickly scan and record a variety of medical "vital signs," access them on your phone and even send to your doctor.

The device looks pretty cool, and I'm not the only one to think so. They put it up with a $100,000 goal, and it's well over $1.6 million dollars. If you want in on the crowdfunding part, though, order now, because their campaign closes tonight.

There are lots of fitness trackers out there these days. And while the Fitbit probably leads the pack in awesomeness, some folks are trying to take things to the next level with the Sensoria Smart Sock Fitness Tracker. It's a special sock plus anklet gadget that you attach to the socks. It measures all the same things that regular trackers do (though, potentially with more accuracy), but goes even further -- such as telling you if your running cadence is off, or if you're landing too much on your heels. Basically, it's trying to take the fitness tracker up a level.

This one is pretty near its goal of $87,000 already, and still has nearly four weeks left, so it'll almost certainly pass its goal. Personally, knowing the rate I go through socks, I wonder if it will get prohibitively expensive if you have to keep buying more of the "smart socks," which appear to run a staggering $20 per pair. Also, the prototype anklet looks huge, though they promise the production device will be smaller. Still, in an age when people are looking to measure everything they do, here's another tool that measures even more.

The last one isn't quite a health/fitness thing, but I could see how it might be used to increase health. It's an omnidirectional treadmill device (plus the special shoes needed to use it) called the WizDish -- which allows you to basically "run" or "walk" while playing video games. In this age of Wii and Kinect where we've finally moved video gaming beyond the "sit on the couch and play" stage, this tries to take it up another level by letting you feel more like you're actually walking or running around rather than being tethered to one spot. You kind of have to watch the video to understand the point:

Of course, as you'll see, this has the feeling of a product where the creator spent an awful lot of time on the engineering aspect, but not nearly enough on the marketing/design aspect. The device looks kinda cheap and flimsy, and the production value of the campaign feels like it could have been done much better. On top of that, the whole thing feels a bit pricey -- and when you realize that you also need to add a VR headset (which most people probably don't have), it might not feel worth it. Perhaps that's why it's only got a little more than 12% raised of its £50,000 goal with just a week to go. Chances are this isn't getting funded. It's too bad, because the concept could be cool, but the folks who created it may want to team up with someone with some more experience in marketing these kinds of accessories.

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

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]]>urls-we-dig-uphttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20101110/19012411804Thu, 19 Feb 2009 18:22:00 PSTThe Wii Might Not Be Much Exercise, But Suing Nintendo For Self-Promotion IsCarlo Longinohttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090212/1323363751.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090212/1323363751.shtmlbefore, but this could be a new low: some guy now claims he's preparing another one for the company to deal with, because he alleges Nintendo misrepresents the Wii as a fitness tool when it actually contributes to obesity. He equates Nintendo to tobacco companies misrepresenting the safety of their products, but as Engadget points out, he's not just some do-gooder concerned about the health of America, he's also somebody who makes his living from it, and apparently has a fitness radio show that's about to launch. Somehow it's hard to imagine this suit will get anywhere; but we also imagine it was never really meant to anyway.

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]]>and-1-and-2-and-file-and-suehttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20090212/1323363751Fri, 7 Dec 2007 18:22:57 PSTYour Computer Thinks You're LazyDennis Yanghttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20071207/162846.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20071207/162846.shtmlStanford researchers have found that an automated computer message reminding people to get out and exercise is nearly as effective as a human counselor. People who were called by the computer exercised an average of 157 minutes per week, as compared to 118 minutes for the people who weren't called. Not bad -- if only someone could figure out how to actually get the computer to do the exercising, that would truly be the killer app.